No Federal Support For Houston to Dallas Bullet Train

HOUSTON, TX — A proposed Texas bullet train isn't the federal government's problem, at least that's what the Surface Transportation Board believes.

The Surface Transportation Board, one of the organizations housed within the U.S. Department of Transportation, decided that since the the 240-ish mile long, high speed train would only operate in Texas, the train is a Texas issue.

The board's reasoning is that, since the train won't be a part of the interstate rail system, the project doesn't fall under the STB's jurisdiction. The decision has prompted both the developers of the project and the people opposed to it to climb on-board the spin control train.

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Texas Central Railroad, the developers behind the train, issued a statement claiming that the petition to the STB was simply submitted for clarification purposes and that without a ruling from the STB "regulatory uncertainty could have impacted the ... project timelines."

Elected officials and rural residents opposed to the train haven't been quite so coy with their response.

"“This is the answer we fought for. This is the first victory in a long battle to ensure that Texas, not Washington, decides the fate of a project hurting our rural communities and landowners," Congressman Kevin Brady (R-TX) wrote in a prepared statement.

Brady, whose district would be bisected by the train's proposed route, has opposed the project since the beginning. He, and a whole bunch of other rural residents, claim that the train's route "fractures our rural lifestyle without any direct economic or transportation benefits to our communities."

In other words, country folk think it's a way for rich city slickers to speed through the boonies on their way from Dallas to Houston without buying so much as a pack of gum.

Obviously the developers see it differently, and claim that the train would spur $36 billion in economic development, create 50,000 temporary construction jobs and pour hundreds of millions dollars into local government coffers each year.

The possibility of the train being built was already in doubt, Texas Central will need to use eminent domain to acquire some or all of the land of about 1,200 farmers and ranchers, and now that the fight is limited to Texas the train is looking more and more like a long shot.